New release – 9th February 2022
Ensemble Augelletti (website), led by recorder player and researcher Olwen Foulkes, presents this beautiful, at times vigorous and sensuous, and always historically fascinating album centred on Anna Amalia, Princess of Prussia, Abbess of Quedlinburg (and sister of Frederick the Great). She was uniquely involved in the musical life of 18th Century Berlin, and as Olwen writes in the album’s extensive programme notes, this album ‘grew out of a desire to celebrate her astonishing musical life as both a composer, a patron, an organist, a promoter, and a curator of musical scores.’
Several of Anna Amalia’s own tuneful and expressive fugues are interspersed with major sonatas by J S Bach, Handel, Corelli, Geminiani and C P E Bach, exploring the important musical library this pioneering composer built up in her lifetime. Augelletti’s performances are suitably colourful, flexible, buoyant and refined, recorded in the warm and spacious acoustic of the National Centre for Early Music in York, UK.
A take of the Handel F major sonata Adagio, from the recording sessions:
Track listing
1-4: J S Bach Trio Sonata in G Major BWV 1039
5: Anna Amalia Fugue in D Major Am.B 479
6-10: G F Handel Trio Sonata in F major Op. 2 No. 4
11-14: A Corelli Trio Sonata in B-flat Major Op. 1 No. 5
15-18: F Geminiani Trio Sonata in D minor Op. 2 No. 5
19: Anna Amalia Fugue in A minor Am.B 479
20: Anna Amalia Fugue in C Major Am.B 479
21-24: J S Bach Trio Sonata in G Major BWV 1038
25: Anna Amalia Fugue in C Major Am.B 479
26-28: C P E Bach Trio Sonata in C Major H. 571
Total running time: 60m25s
Additional information
The Library of a Prussian Princess received support from Continuo Foundation, Angel Early Music and many other organisations and individual donors. It’s available on BCR now as a physical album (via worldwide mail-order) or an instant audio file download (MP3, WAV and Studio Master high resolution FLAC all available after purchase, in easily-accessible ZIP bundles) with PDF booklet.
Recorded at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret’s Church, York, UK in May 2021. Production, editing and mastering: Robin Bigwood
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